Waiting
by Stephane Richer
Summary: How do you rebuild a relationship?


Waiting

Disclaimer: I don't own Green Day's "Waiting" or Fujimaki Tadatoshi's _Kuroko no Basuke_.

Author's Note: Sequel to "Brutal Love" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends".

* * *

How do you rebuild a relationship? How do you strike a balance between the old you and the new, old feelings and new? How do you start all over again when you used to know every inch of the other's body and mind but now familiar muscles are a little less toned, scar tissue is plastered over areas where there used to be just endless expanses of skin, one of you speaks in a lower tone, you're both more rational and less rash and your actions and gestures and words surprise one another? How do you rebuild a relationship when you've been apart for a longer time than you were together?

It's too easy to just hold the familiar hands and say, "I love you." But do you really mean it? Or does it mean, "The person who I was ten years ago loved the person who you were ten years ago"? Can you just pick up from where you left off? If you can't, can you really have a fresh start when there's so much history and so many layers of memory and experience?

You have to meet in the middle somewhere. So they've been on a few shaky dinner dates,, not conversing freely but not running out of things to say. But they're both guarded now, both…afraid. They've built it up in their minds to be this grand, amazing thing that their relationship probably wasn't, and they're too afraid of repeating the mistakes that led them to break up in the first place. They haven't progressed, have barely held hands, forget kissing or sex or staying the night.

Aomine and Takao are having coffee in the teacher's lounge when Aomine airs his frustrations aloud. The shorter man nods sympathetically and tries to advise him, but with Aomine it's mostly in one ear and out the other. He just likes to hear himself talk and comes to his own conclusions. Still, it's always worth a try. Takao didn't get to where he is without being incredibly optimistic.

"Isn't one of the reasons you broke up because Kise was being too clingy?"

"Yeah, so? He sure as hell ain't being clingy now."

Takao sighs. "Well, of course he's not. He doesn't want you to reject him for being clingy, so he's doing the opposite."

"That's just retarded! There's a huge difference between clingy and…whatever the hell he's doing now."

Takao shrugs, draining his mug of the remaining coffee. "Well, you're not taking the initiatives, either." He gets up, as if to leave. "Excuse me; I have a world history class to teach."

Aomine just looks down at his own coffee as if that's a better source of advice, so Takao takes his leave. As much as Aomine hates to admit it, Takao's words might have some merit. Kise hasn't been his usual (well, usual as of when Aomine knew him) flirty self, but Aomine hasn't been especially flirty and hasn't really done much of anything in terms of showing his interest. He's agreed to go on these dates, and he'd grabbed Kise's hand that one time although he wasn't sure of how Kise would take it. He'd thought it had gone over okay, but Kise hadn't followed it up with any gestures of his own so Aomine assumed he was going too fast. So, okay, he needs to be the one who takes Kise's hand and puts his arm around Kise and kisses him and propositions him and hits on him. Okay.

He's so out of practice—it's been an embarrassingly long time since he's done anything remotely romantic or sexual with another actual human. He hasn't even made a pass at anyone in years, preferring the company of erotic fiction and magazines featuring girls with giant fake tits. His human interaction in the last seven or eight years has been limited mostly to his parents and Takao and Midorima until very recently, when it expanded to his boss (an old man with a squashed-in face and a monotonous voice) and the high school girls he coaches in basketball. This list includes no one he'd even consider thinking about sexually. Oh, well, no time like the present. Aomine's always had a lot of faith in his own abilities.

* * *

Their conversation is smoother; they're getting more comfortable with one another. They laugh and they bring up the past without getting defensive or shutting down. They can be frank with one another; they always could. But soon, dinner is over. They split the bill, as they've been doing, and then they walk out of the restaurant and toward Aomine's apartment.

Kise lives in the other direction, and though he doesn't live all that far from here he still has to take a train. Aomine wonders if Kise will forgo the train station tonight and stay at his place. He takes Kise's hand, winds their fingers together. Kise smiles at him. They walk in silence, comfortable. It's like they did in high school, when they first started going out and could only see one another occasionally (well, not all that occasionally; Aomine would skip class with some regularity to come see Kise) and talked on the phone a lot.

They soon reach the building. This is where Kise usually leaves. Aomine turns to face him, reaches up one hand to brush his cheek and then leans over and kisses him full-on. It's their second first kiss, deeper and more intimate than their first first kiss. Aomine's the one taking the initiative this time, and he almost pushes Kise up against the wall before he remembers that this is a public street and his neighbors might see. But, then again, who gives a shit about the neighbors? Aomine doubts most of them even know his name, so he does push Kise against the wall and deepen the kiss further, filling it with ten years of longing and want.

Kise breaks the kiss, reaching up and gently pushing Aomine's face back. He's panting and blushing. Good.

"You want to come in?"

"For coffee, right?" Kise winks.

Aomine just grabs Kise's hand again and goes inside, running up the stairs and pulling Kise behind him for five flights. His knee is groaning by the time he finishes the fifth, but hey, he's there and he has Kise with him and that's what matters right now.

He finds his keys, unlocks the door, lets him in and smiles that cocky smile at Kise. "So, do you still take your coffee with two packs of sugar?"

Kise just smiles that same smile right back. After all these years, he can still copy Aomine perfectly. His own expression still looks so much hotter on Kise, though, so he goes in for another kiss. Minutes later, they're in the bedroom, clothes off, inspecting every inch of each other's bodies to assess the changes and relearn the sweet spots. Aomine traces a hand up Kise's thigh and he spazzes and cries out, but then Kise goes for Aomine's ears and damn, that still gets him, turns him into putty in Kise's hands, maybe even more so now because it's been ten years and no other lover has even thought to go there. Hands and mouths touch every centimeter of skin, roam all over, and it feels so good and so hot that Aomine thinks he might come right then and there but somehow he doesn't. He's getting so close to the edge, and Kise can tell, can sense that right away so he motions for Aomine to get on his knees and grabs a bottle of lube and pressing his fingers in hurts more than he expects it to, but he gets used to it and then Kise's cock fills him up and slams deep inside of him, and he lets loose a yell. It only takes a few more thrusts for him to actually come, and Kise follows him not soon after.

The first first time they did it, Aomine topped. They were sixteen going on seventeen, had been going out for a month or so. It was much more removed from their first kiss than this time. But this time, everything is different, not quite new but not the same either. And honestly, why compare? Aomine spoons Kise, holding him close and wanting never to let him go again. But he knows he's going to have to in the morning. There will be time to make up for the years they lost, to learn the things they gained in the meantime.

For the first time in ten years, Aomine is confident that things will turn out okay.

* * *

The summer is hot, hotter than normal, setting record temperatures. It's also setting record rainfalls, and the world around Aomine is suddenly very green. He's lost count of the number of times he's stepped outside and wondered if this is really Tokyo and not some tropical rain forest, and it's only July. The days are long and the nights Aomine spends in Kise's bed (or Kise in his) are all too short. His lease is up at the end of the month, and he mentions it one night when they're in the stage after sex and before sleep.

"Yeah, mine, too," Kise mumbles. "Mine was a five-year, though."

"So come live with me," Aomine replies. "This place is more convenient."

"How much is it a month?"

Kise's eyes snap open. "That's way less than I'm paying." He lives in a building with a doorman and a health spa, so he shouldn't be surprised.

"So?"

"Okay." He rolls over and goes to sleep, and Aomine follows suit.

* * *

The alarm rings and he gropes for the snooze button, finally finding it, but by then he's more than half-awake anyway.

"Daikicchi?"

"Hm?"

"Good morning."

Aomine rolls over to face Kise, who had been spooning him. "Good?" Even with the air conditioner at full blast, it's hot as hell in the apartment and grey clouds and streaks of rain are all that can be seen outside the window. The humidity would be creeping in, but it never left from yesterday.

"Yeah."

It's unspoken: you're here, I'm here, I'm going to move in with you, I love you.

Aomine smiles. "I guess it is good."


End file.
